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Shooting Stars host BlackJacks in second meeting of the season
June 27, 2022
CEBL Team

The Scarborough Shooting Stars will look to stay hot on Monday night at Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre in a matchup with the Ottawa BlackJacks at 7:30 p.m. ET. Scarborough defeated the BlackJacks 98-81 in Ottawa on June 2nd with all five starters reaching double figures.


The Shooting Stars enter Monday’s contest on a short turnaround after defeating the Hamilton Honey Badgers 75-72 on Saturday. The victory was Scarborough’s fourth in five games, with their lone loss coming by three points against the red hot Fraser Valley Bandits in Langley. Scarborough sits in sixth place in the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) standings at 5-4, with the same record as the Saskatchewan Rattlers.


Down 66-59 heading into Elam time, the Shooting Stars came back to pick up the win over Hamilton off a short corner jumper from Kameron Chatman after a scramble for the rebound.


“I think we wanted this one so much and in the end we just refused to lose. We did whatever it took—getting stops and making shots— and you saw a team
that really came together tonight,” Shooting Stars’ head coach Chris Exilus said. “We don’t care who scores at the end of Elam, we just want to make sure at the end we win.”


Chatman netted a team-high 21 points in the win while Jalen Harris scored 19 points for Scarborough. Despite the 19 points, Harris had some cold stretches, going 7-21 from the field, 0-5 from three and 4-8 from the free throw line to go along with 4 turnovers. Isiaha Mike also chipped in 12 points and 8 rebounds for the Shooting Stars.


Meanwhile, the Ottawa BlackJacks picked up a much needed win on Thursday against the defending champion Edmonton Stingers. After starting the season 1-7 and losing four consecutive games, Walt Lemon Jr. carried the BlackJacks to their first home win of the season with 23 points and 9 assists. Chad Posthumus had a double-double, with 14 points on 5-5 shooting, 10 rebounds and the game-winning free throw. Deng Adel struggled from the field at 1-9 but went 8-8 from the charity stripe and contributed 10 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists.


BlackJacks head coach James Derouin will likely look to those three players on Monday to lead the team to back-to-back wins for the first time this season. Adel leads the BlackJacks with 19.1 points per game on 55 per cent shooting and also contributes 5.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game. Lemon Jr. is just behind Adel at 18 points per game on 51 per cent shooting and leads the team in both assists per game at 4.9 and steals per game at 1.6. Posthumus is close to averaging a double-double for the BlackJacks at 9.8 points per game and 9.8 rebounds per game.


The Shooting Stars offence relies heavily on Jalen Harris, who leads the league in field goal attempts per game at 18.8 and sits second in the league at 21.1 points per game. Outside of Harris, the Shooting Stars have an array of talent that contributes. Chatman, Xavier Rathan-Mayes, Kyle Alexander and Isiaha Mike all average double figures for Scarborough and the lineup is tough to deal with when healthy.


The Shooting Stars have a strong paint presence, sitting third in the league in rebounding and fourth in blocks. Meanwhile, a bright spot for Ottawa this season has been their unselfishness. They sit second in the league in assists per game at 19.6, trailing only the Edmonton Stingers.


The game will stream on CEBL+ live internationally and in Canada at cbcsports.ca, the CBC Sports app for iOS

and Android devices and the free CBC Gem streaming service. Games are also available on the CEBL’s official app, CEBL Mobile, available on iOS and Android devices.

Scarborough Shooting Stars season tickets are available at https://www.scarboroughshootingstars.ca/tickets554a5865 while Hamilton Honey Badgers season tickets are available at https://www.honeybadgers.ca/tickets .

A league created by Canadians for Canadians, the CEBL has the highest percentage of Canadian players of any professional league in the country, with 71 percent of its current rosters being Canadians. Players bring experience from the NBA, NBA G League, top international leagues, the Canadian National team program, and top NCAA programs as well as U SPORTS. The only First Division Professional League Partner of Canada Basketball, the CEBL season runs from May through August. Head to CEBL.ca for more information or follow us (@cebleague) on Instagram , Twitter , TikTok , LinkedIn , Facebook & YouTube .

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